Gator Baseball CWS: Gators vs Texas Tech - time for some revenge

[dz_23]

Time to give Sully some props. He is One Helluva Coach!

Amen

 

[stephenPE]

One game at a time............one game at a time

 

[LagoonGator68]

Sully did a hellava job getting Leftwichs mind off how big the game was by coaching him on picking 3rd base off after that nightmare 2nd inning.

 

[rogdochar]

Need separate thread for tonight's Gators vs Arkansas ... ESPN at 8 pm.

 

[cover2]

Not pretty, but a great win. Got to hand it to O'Sullivan as many coaches would have yanked Leftwich after two, but he was able to whisper in the kid's ear and squeeze a good performance out of him. Against Arky tonight I'm hoping Singer is on and believe that he won't lose two in a row. @FireFoley makes a good point about his down time when he was nursing the injury late in the season. Gotta think his arm has a little more life as a result.

Thank goodness for some timely hitting and a couple of breaks thrown in since our defense can be unstable. I have to think that for us to be successful moving on we will have to clean things up and hit with better consistency. Accomplishing that for two straight to get into the finals will be a tall order based on what has been produced the last part of the season. But I think O'Sullivan will have as good a plan as he can have based on what he's got to work with. Given that, we need some strong (and long) stretches by the guys on the mound. Our pitching and defense has to be superior to the Hogs' bats regardless of how well we hit in my opinion.

 

[Theologator]

Singer needs to go so he can get enough rest to pitch again Tuesday or Wednesday

That appears to be the plan.

It looked last night that Sully was willing to risk losing so he could be set for the rest of the tournament. There are only 2 outcomes: a NC or not.

 

[Gatorbait25]

The play by Langworthy in left was obviously huge, and I think gave Jack a bit of a lift. Defense from the OF and corners was
at times very good, other times not so much. The main concern here has the be the middle infield. Deacon is no Guthrie out there
at short, and has booted a couple now lately as has Reese. We also had a missed pop up in foul territory that Jon lost in the lights. Jack
shook it off and got the K a couple pitches later. He showed a lot of heart last night, and very well might be our Friday night guy next season.

 

[Ocalaman]

The play by Langworthy in left was obviously huge, and I think gave Jack a bit of a lift. Defense from the OF and corners was
at times very good, other times not so much. The main concern here has the be the middle infield. Deacon is no Guthrie out there
at short, and has booted a couple now lately as has Reese. We also had a missed pop up in foul territory that Jon lost in the lights. Jack
shook it off and got the K a couple pitches later. He showed a lot of heart last night, and very well might be our Friday night guy next season.

Leftwich showed grit and heart last night. He battled without command of any of his 3 pitches. He'll be a weekend starter next year for sure and earned his stripes last night. As for the rest of the bullpen, except for Byrne, they sucked. It was nice to get the other fresman experience on the mound, but they failed in their jobs. We got some breaks and were fortunate to hang on. Giving up 6 runs in the 7th & 8th inning is totally unacceptable. 3 out of the Final 4 are SEC teams and we won the league, but beating Arkansas is going to be a real challenge especially the way they've been playing.

 

[Theologator]

Leftwich showed grit and heart last night. He battled without command of any of his 3 pitches. He'll be a weekend starter next year for sure and earned his stripes last night. As for the rest of the bullpen, except for Byrne, they sucked. It was nice to get the other fresman experience on the mound, but they failed in their jobs. We got some breaks and were fortunate to hang on. Giving up 6 runs in the 7th & 8th inning is totally unacceptable. 3 out of the Final 4 are SEC teams and we won the league, but beating Arkansas is going to be a real challenge especially the way they've been playing.

The shift in his control after the 2nd was stunning. He threw a beautiful pitch to strike a guy out and that seemed to be a turning point. He said the runs scored in the 3rd helped him be more aggressive with the strike zone. Experience is the best teacher, especially when you have a great coach guiding how you process it.

 

[Gatorphan]

I give Sully the most credit for putting Smith behind plate and leaving JJ in the lineup. Both paid huge dividends last night, especially Smith. He handled a rotation of pitchers throughout the night who couldn’t throw strikes, and mostly with RISP. Add on a nice double too. The kid was player of the game IMO.